Skinning it

[tgnc.org.uk]

After reading the demo site that is default install of CMSMS it mentioned about being able to make style changes and skin the CMS to match your site requirements.

I looked at the wiki entry and it told me as much about the way to do it as the demo site did which is nothing.

I have been fumbling around the admin control panel for days on where to upload a new background image but all I see is a set menus that lead me to other menus and I feel like I am in one big menu driven menu...

So if someone could point me in the right direction in the admin cp on where I do this, I would be extremely thankful and a pointer on what I need to look for too would be great.

[Russ]

You can apply CSS themes to the front end of you website. You can also make your own with CSS. You can also have different admin themes for your web site? So I'm not sure what you are after here, using different front end themes for your website and using different admin themes is well covered in the documentation I think?

Are you asking how you create your own theme? Learning CSS would be a good start I guess and then duplicate and modify one of the existing themes?

If you could provide a bit more information on what you are trying to do we maybe able to help some more.
http://forum.cmsmadesimple.org/index.php/topic,2661.0.html

[tgnc.org.uk]

The main site that is need of this overhaul is currently being pushed by another CMS tool thats very basic in its use.

I was reviewing the user CP that my web host uses and noticed that CMS Made Simple was on offer as a one-click installer.

So I gave it a go, it installed first time and reading the demo site thats default after install, I noted that it had functions that would make my life easier and my friends and also several other people I help with web pages, sites and building of.

What I am aiming to do is to channel all these users in to pushing the content themselves in to the site and not pester me at 3 am when they have had a great idea and could I whack up a page now please... Like my Ex-partner does to me regular, so with my resources (brain) pulled to stretching point getting beyond the inital "Wuh!" and "Eh?" at getting the CMS skinned up and running is a bit daunting despite the well meaning wiki, I was hoping that someone would be able to point me to what parts and how to access.

I have several sites that would benefit from this CMS, it seems very extensible. Got any type of site wizzards in the pipeline that could help people who want to click'n'go.

[Russ]

I'm not sure of your skill set tgnc.org.uk , but I think you will find that CMSMS is really for people who know quite a bit about PHP, CSS, Smarty and XHTML/HTML? Especially from the web creator role, which appears to be the one you are aiming to fulfil. Even on the client side, I would suggest at least a modicum of talents in those areas.

If you have an installed version, then you can see the default site and also login to the default admin. In the admin you can manage you website, add, delete, modify etc.

I presume you have seen the documentation?
http://wiki.cmsmadesimple.org/index.php/Main_Page

There are no actual wizards, at least I don't think there are. I'm not sure what sort of Wizards you might be requiring?

Pre-made themes for you site are here, (note the difference between admin or backend themes and the front facing themes or what people see on your website):
http://themes.cmsmadesimple.org/

CMSMS is very customizable, you can alter the structure with templates and smarty, the style with CSS and use Javascript for behaviours. They are a number of simple plugins and more complex modules that can be installed.
http://dev.cmsmadesimple.org/
(Many are also available through the admin module manager.)

And there is of course the forum and would suggest you look over:
http://forum.cmsmadesimple.org/index.php/topic,2661.0.html

Does this help?

[replytomk3]

what is the question?

[tgnc.org.uk]

OK, perhaps to "bigger picture" as I am referring to the whole lot in time but the most important parts are to make a translucent background to the table elements and divs in the site and a jpg image that repeats in the background.

So the question is how, where and what part of the admin console do go to?
How do I get a background image to show?

Thx.

[replytomk3]

Layout>Stylesheets

[tgnc.org.uk]

All I see is a list of links on the page. Tried to "copy" a sheet and went to edit the copy to find nothing about images.

I am completely lost on this, everything has been fin in the use of it and making page changes and this is like hitting a brickwall. Sorry if I come across as just not getting it, thats prolly because I ain't.

I have a background image in the web root, bg_main.jpg and I need to know what style sheet to stuff the information in to to do that. Any ideas?

[Dr.CSS]

When making/editing a page you choose a template, lets say myTemplate, hit submit...

Go to Layout > templates click myTemplate and you can edit it using XHTML/HTML and if you have to tables, at the top you see a CSS button, click this takes you to page with list of style sheets attached to the template and you can attach more if needed/wanted, click name of style sheet to edit it...

So lets say you have an image for the whole background, bodyback.jpg, I always put them in uploads/folderNamedLikeTemplate so the path would be uploads/myTemplate/bodyback.jpg in your style sheet find body and set the background to your image...

It most times is best to copy existing templates and all style sheets attached to it so you will have originals to look back on...

All the style sheets have extensive comments on what does what and the templates even tell you what style sheet to look in...

Biggest requirement is knowing HTML and CSS...

[Jeff]

All I see is a list of links on the page. Tried to "copy" a sheet and went to edit the copy to find nothing about images.

I am completely lost on this, everything has been fin in the use of it and making page changes and this is like hitting a brickwall. Sorry if I come across as just not getting it, thats prolly because I ain't.

I have a background image in the web root, bg_main.jpg and I need to know what style sheet to stuff the information in to to do that. Any ideas?

3. Who should use CMS Made Simple?

If you're an experienced web developer. If you have found that sometimes creating a simple corporate or organization website is difficult in some of the other content management systems. If you have found that other CMS's are sometimes "overkill" for what you need. If you want to be able to hand off the content management to editors. If you want complete control over the layout and appearance of the site, and you know how to do it... If you want a simple, easy to use, yet expandable tool - then CMS Made Simple is probably for you.

CMS Made Simple is not a replacement for packages that build static websites like Dreamweaver or FrontPage, etc. These packages don't use databases, provide little in the way of dynamic content, and usually content cannot be edited by customers.

[replytomk3]

3. Who should use CMS Made Simple?

If you're an experienced web developer. If you have found that sometimes creating a simple corporate or organization website is difficult in some of the other content management systems. If you have found that other CMS's are sometimes "overkill" for what you need. If you want to be able to hand off the content management to editors. If you want complete control over the layout and appearance of the site, and you know how to do it... If you want a simple, easy to use, yet expandable tool - then CMS Made Simple is probably for you.

CMS Made Simple is not a replacement for packages that build static websites like Dreamweaver or FrontPage, etc. These packages don't use databases, provide little in the way of dynamic content, and usually content cannot be edited by customers.

CMSMS also does not infringe on "tiny" Content Management Systems, or hosted management solutions, or online templates. If you do not want someone to create a CMSMS template for you from an existing page, then you are in the wrong place.

A solution like:
CushyCMS
Pixie
Clover Content - Simple CMS
Edicy
Terapad.com
is more for you. Other solutions you might look at are at my CMSes compare page http://mkrd.info/reviews/simple-small-easy-lite-cms-portal/selection-criteria/rejected-content-management-systems.html

[replytomk3]

On the other hand, patience and perseverance is what changed CMSMS from being something that I have never seen before to something that I love. In other words, learning required.

[tgnc.org.uk]

Although I do code, I do not use CSS and using CMS system is a bit hit and miss as everyone has their own idea of what is "Simple" and if you were to put yourself in the shoes of a beginner with no experience of CMS let alone CSS... the whole thing gets confusing and especially when you find that items are split up or in different menus. So its a crash course for me in both CMS and CSS.

I have managed to edit out one bit of a page element but now I need to swap the menu position with the main display area so the menu is on the right side of the page and not the left. what do I change to make that happen?

[Connie]

after so many answers still lost?

1) which template are you using?
2) check out which CSS-files are linked to that stylesheet, you will see a CSS-Symbol at the right side in the template-list
3) click there and you will get the list of stylesheets which are used in that template

4) Use Firefox and WebdeveloperExtension to identify which CSS-element is active at the part which you want to change
5) find this element in one of the CSS-stylesheets of the template and edit that stylesheet

this is not so difficult.

It is normal work what every webdesigner must handle: identify the relevant css-elements and manipulate them

good luck!

[tgnc.org.uk]

All the template says is

Left simple navigation + 1 column

and I made a copy of it and I am moding the original one.